Hollywood

As a reaction to the many sexual assault claims popping out of Hollywood, movie studios are considering the return of morality clauses.

Moral clauses were big in the 1920s. They allowed movie studios to place strict limitations on the personal lives of actors. This was enacted so studios could maintain their reputations and prevent actors from getting into big scandals or crime cases.

These clauses often protected studios and filmmakers “if the talent engages in conduct that results in adverse publicity or notoriety or risks bringing the talent into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule.”

Now with the rise of the #MeeToo campaign and the fall of Hollywood talents like Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, some believe the resurgence of these moral clauses is on the horizon.

The problem is that this incredibly strict control over the personal lives of actors could negatively impact LGBTQ actors in the business.

There is already a stigma towards actors coming out of the closet for fear that the actors will no longer have the option of lead roles and will be shoehorned into typecasted parts.

For instance, Fantastic Beasts and Justice Leagueactor Ezra Miller shared last year that he was told coming out was a mistake. In addition, Luke Evans's publicity team tried to make seem like he was dating a woman back in the mid-2000s.

While all of this is just assumption as studios consider the idea, LGBTQ talent might be concerned about the possibility.

It just came in that Hollywood agent Tyler Grasham has been fired from the Agency for the Performing Arts (otherwise known as APA).

“Tyler Grasham’s employment with APA has been terminated effective immediately,” APA spokesperson Manfred Westphal said while speaking to The Wrap.

News first broke when actors Blaise Godbe Lipman, Lucas Ozarowski, and an unidentified third man accused Grasham of giving them alcohol and sexually assaulting them multiple times while they were teenagers.

After the story went viral, teen actors like Stranger Things and It star Finn Wolfhard and Disney’s Descendants star Cameron Boyce fired the agent from their service.

In addition, Grasham was placed on “leave of absence” earlier Friday while the APA announced it would hired a third party to investigate the situation.

Now, it seems the agency has elected to fire Tyler Grasham entirely.

Meanwhile, Blaise Godbe Lipman posted on Facebook his appreciation of everyone who supported him in speaking out against Grasham.

The cast and crew of the CW’s Riverdale are currently in a battle with corporate execs in order to get better safety after lead actor K.J. Apa got into a car accident last week.

20-year-old K.J. Apa, who plays Archie in the Warner Bros.-produced tv adaption of Archie Comics, got into a crash while driving home from a shoot that went on past midnight.

During the 45-minute drive home, Apa apparently fell asleep and hit a lightening pole. He was taken to the nearest hospital and was shortly discharged due to non-serious wounds. His car however was not so lucky as the entire front passenger side was caved in making the car inoperable.

Even scarier is the fact that co-star Cole Sprouse who plays Jughead almost rode home with Apa before eventually settling on a different way to his house. If he had been in the car, this situation could have been deadly.

After this incident, Sprouse has gathered cast and crew together to demand that proper transportation be given to workers, with their main focus on actors, staying for extremely late hours.

Warner Bros.’s rule is that cast and crew are to find their own transportation home especially when shooting outside the U.S. (Riverdale is shot in Vancouver). In addition, sources for the Hollywood reporter state that if actors feel unsafe to drive they are welcome to call a taxi or stay at a hotel near the shooting site on the studio’s dime.

Despite that, rumors are that there has been a meeting called between castmembers and Warner Bros. executives, but Warner Bros has declined to confirm this to the Hollywood Reporter. In addition, they refused to confirm the claim that K.J. Apa had worked a sixteen hour workday prior to the accident.

Image viaCamila Mendes's Instagram

Instead, they released the following statement.

“First and foremost, we are extremely grateful that KJ Apa was uninjured during his recent accident. Secondarily, we want to specifically address the characterization that conditions on the set of Riverdale are of concern. We have a large cast of series regulars, and our actors do not work every day. On the day of the accident, KJ worked 14.2 hours. The previous day he worked 2.5 hours, and the day before that he worked 7.7 hours. KJ has repeatedly been informed about making production aware if he is tired or feels unsafe, and if so, either a ride or hotel room will be provided for him. The accident occurred last Thursday. Additionally, it is untrue that KJ was taken to the hospital. He was treated by first responders on the scene and released by them. We also sent a doctor to his home later that same day for a follow-up to confirm his well-being.

The safety of the cast and crew on all of our productions is of paramount importance to the Studio. Productions adhere to the Screen Actors Guild–mandated turnaround time of 12 hours from wrap time to next day call time for cast members. In accordance with industry standard policy, if any cast or crew member feels tired or unsafe at any time after working, the Studio will provide a taxi, a driver or a hotel room upon request. This is communicated to all cast and crew, both in writing and verbally, at the beginning of production and is reiterated continuously throughout the duration of production.”

While WBTV continues to dodge questions and resolve the issue in private, cast and crew continues to raise a stir about the incident/issue and the actors union SAG-AFTRA has started its own investigation at the set.

"This is an extremely troubling situation and we are deeply concerned about the safety of performers on the Riverdale set," said part of the statement, "We are sending a team to Vancouver to review the circumstances surrounding safety issues affecting performers on this production."

In the meantime, both Apa and Sprouse are safe, healthy, and joking around on set as investigations and meetings continue.

But, what we’re here to talk to you about in this post is a project of his that will never see the light of day.

Sam Smith admitted that he almost pitched his idea for starring in a gay version of A Star is Reborn, but sadly Lady Gaga got to it first.

Smith spoke to Attitude Magazine and confessed that he once worked with James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli to make that dream a reality. They were in Mexico for the premiere of SPECTRE when they got the idea "to pitch the studio a gay rework of A Star is Born."

The film A Star is Reborn is a film that’s had multiple adaptions and remakes. Originally, it started in 1937 before being remade in 1954 (the version most are familiar with, which starred Judy Garland), a 1976 version with Barbara Streisand, and now a 2018 version which will star Lady Gaga.

Smith was hoping to make a new version of the film but shift it to have a gay male lead.

"We were drunk, and at that point, unaware that [Lady] Gaga was redoing it anyway," Sam recalled. "We had it all worked out. I wanted to [sing] 'The Man that Got Away.'"

While “The Man That Got Away” is a song that was sung in Judy Garland’s version of the film, Smith states that his version would have been similar to the plots of Steisand’s 1976 remake (and coincidentally Gaga’s as well).

Then, when asked who he would have liked to play opposite him as the male celebrity whose career is on the decline (which will be played by Bradly Cooper in the 2018 version), Sam Smith said he would have liked it to be…

“Ryan Gosling!" he said. "I met him once and he shook my hand. It was like meeting Hercules. He's beautiful."

Unfortunately, Sam Smith wasn’t quick enough to pitch the movie (or perhaps only meant it as a drunken idea). And now we might never get to see his gay version of A Star is Born.

Remember The Devil Wears Prada, the mid-2000s film starring Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Meryl Streep about a girl who accidently falls straight into the epicenter of the fashion world?

That movie has been out for over ten years now, but some call it a classic or a nice reminder of what Hollywood movies used to look like before everything centered around superhero movies.

All of that has left the film in some of our hearts and minds, which makes this trending news that much more potent.

You see, a deleted scene has popped up thanks to the help of Buzzfeed writer Spencer Althouse. Spencer tweeted out the deleted scene with the message that, “I'm just seeing this deleted scene from The Devil Wears Prada for the first time, and honestly it changed the whole movie for me.

I'm just seeing this deleted scene from The Devil Wears Prada for the first time, and honestly it changed the whole movie for me pic.twitter.com/6Zkr6UxHQO

After seeing that clip, many fans agree that this scene changes the context of the movie and specifically of the character Miranda Priestly (Streep’s character).

Priestly, is supposed to be the always strong, always cold leader of the fashion world. By including the scene, the character is shown to be vulnerable and ultimately changes the viewer's perspective of her.

Miranda would NEVER do that. That 'thank you' is so out-of-character! Thanks for snipping that out. https://t.co/B1swgdViCj

The scene shows us Priestly dealing with a drunk husband at a very public function and then thanking Andy Sachs (Hathaway's character) for helping her.

Plus, while there is no real mention of it again in the movie, there’s also the air of understanding around the scene that this isn’t the first time the man has done something like this.

In addition, if you’ve seen the movie you might remember the scene with “The Book.” Hathaway’s character is charged with entering Priestly’s home in order to get the editor’s draft of the magazine's next issue and she walks in on some heated whispers between Priestly and her husband.

Perhaps that scene and this deleted one were to inform the viewer that Priestly is dealing with a difficult marriage both privately and semi-publicly?

The movie spotlighting the Westboro Baptist Church has gotten a director and it’s Marc Webb of The Amazing Spider-Man and The Gifted.

The film, titled This Above All, will focus on the Westboro Baptist Church, one of the most recognized hate groups in America. They are deeply rooted in homophobic rhetoric and are even so bad as to protest funerals for fallen soldiers of the American military.

The story however will focus on Megan Phelps-Roper, played by Reese Witherspoon. Phelps-Roper was sort of the heir to the Westboro Baptist Church. She is the granddaughter of the founder, Fred Phelps, and became a powerful voice for the organization.

That said, after joining Twitter to extend the voice of the church, Phelps-Roper found herself confronted with people of differing viewpoints. After talking to them for some time, she began to question her faith.

Credit: TEDTalks

Later, she and her younger sister fled from the church and were disowned by their family.

“Megan’s extraordinary story says so much about so many things in contemporary America, and I’m really excited about this project,” said Hornby. “I’m looking forward to working with the brilliant Marc Webb, CNÉ and with my friends Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and River Road, with whom I enjoyed such a good relationship during the making of ‘Wild.”

We’re just happy to know that the film will depict a true and telliing look at both the inside of the church and also the hateful cruelty they can inflict upon those outside of it.

But what we should all be really looking forward to is a real, or at least close enough knowing Hollywood, depiction of Gianni Versace’s life and death.

Of course, with someone like Ryan Murphy at the reigns, it could be 50/50 either way.

But, while speaking at a recent Television Critics Association summer conference meeting, Murphy assured the audience that the show is going for believability and historical facts.

“We’ve spoken to other people who have definite ideas about what was going on with him at the time,” he said while at the head of the conference, “I think we’ve been very respectful to his family, particularly. Donatella had some requests about how the children were depicted in the show. I listened to that. As a father, I understood. I wasn’t interested in going there, out of respect for her.”

In addition, Ryan Murphy wanted to express the fact that the series will also focus on Versace’s HIV status. At the time, the designer was very secretive about the fact due to the public’s mentality around HIV, but, again, Murphy wanted to go for truth and facts in his depiction despite the stigma.

“You could literally lose your business, lose everything that you had,” he said. “Versace’s company was about to go public, and he was terrified of anything negative coming out about his personal life. We delve into that in the show.”

So, knowing that Murphy is going for an honest depiction, are you more interested in the show then you were before?